Review of El Naranjo

We have eaten here twice in the last two years, most recently in December 2018. The food is good, but the staff is incredibly poorly trained and I did not feel safe eating here. Much of their menu is gluten free, and those items that are not are marked. When we were seated we informed the server that I had Celiac; we ordered two appetizers and I had tacos. When the brought the appetizers they came with chips, which I ate, because I assumed they wouldn’t serve me anything that contained gluten or could be contaminated.

I was wrong. The server came by to see how we were doing and informed me that the chips just brought with the appetizer were fried in a shared fryer with flour burritos. I told her that I absolutely should have been told that before I ate any, and she replied that it was all right, because ‘the fryer kills the gluten.’ I got really upset and asked to see the manager, who told us that the oil had been changed that day and nothing with flour had been cooked.

I did not have a warm fuzzy; their carelessness in giving me something that could have been contaminated and not informing me of the potential for cross-contamination is unacceptable. Add to that the server’s belief that gluten can be ‘killed’ by high temperatures and this place is very likely to make someone sick. We’ll dine elsewhere.

Celiac friendly?

No